Facebook Home Has Arrived

Last week Facebook announced their new Android launcher called Facebook Home and now the app is in the Play Store. It’s only available for a limited number of phones like the newer S3 and HTC one X. But we have the apk available in case you want to sideload it and test if it works for your phone. I’ve now had a chance to test the app and my first impression is that it has potential. Keep reading to understand what this new app does and whether you should try it or not.

What’s is great about Facebook Home is that it’s an Android launcher app which can be easy installed and easily removed. So you can try it and if you don’t like simply remove it or go back to using your previous launcher. But what does this launcher do and why would you want it.

Basically Facebook Home turns your lockscreen into a portal for Facebook. You have scrolling pictures of your friends with their updates on the picture. If you like a picture or update then simply double-click to like. You can also easily comment on any update as well. I’m not a heavy Facebook user but with this launcher you just can’t help starting at the pictures and interacting with it. I also found myself looking at update from people who I would normally ignore. Theis goal of this launcher is to make you interact with Facebook more and I think it does accomplish its goal.

Another great feature that you can actually have separately is the new Chat Head messenger. When people message you a bubble Cheat Head appears on the screen on top of you current app. It lets you easily chat with people and even add pictures and video. You can also have it so your text messages go through the Chat Head app as well. This I really like and I think is something that I will use more often.

But it’s not all good with Facebook. I think a major drawback is that it takes away many of the cool customization on your phone. There are no more lockscreen or home widgets which are really useful and many people need. There is also no way to customize the Facebook Home experience either. I would personally like the option to allow certain groups to show up on the lockscreen rather than everybody. The big pictures and updates are nice but sometimes in public that won’t be so nice.

There are a lot of concepts in Facebook Home that are really nice and hopefully will get incorporated into Android or other launchers in the future. Whether everyone will use this launcher or not isn’t that important. It is important that Facebook is now involved in Android and is bringing innovation which is a major plus. Facebook has promised monthly update so there maybe even better things to come and that is good for Android. This could push Google to make their Google+ app better. Well, checkout Facebook Home and let us know what you think.